An excellent talk at the History House....

   Despite the beautiful weather and lots of other local activities, the talk on getting started on your family history by Brian Bouchard of the Maine Genealogical Society was very well attended.

   Brian gave us a basic introduction to how to "climb your family tree".  He stressed the importance of talking to living members of your family before anything else.  As he said, "Your ancestors can wait, those living may not be with you for long...get their stories."

   Here are five questions you can use to start the conversation with a family member:

1. "What are your earliest memories?"
2. "Tell me some of your favorite family stories."
3. "What was the happiest time of your life?"
4. "Which person in your family had the most influence in your life?"
5. "What have you done that gave you the most satisfaction?"

   The most important thing to remember when interviewing people is to keep the questions open-ended and focus on the positive.  You can always ask more specific questions once the stories start, like "What year did that happen?", "Do you remember where you were when that happened?"/

   Brian also emphasized the need to not rely solely on internet searches but to visit local historical societies (hint, hint!) and most importantly, talk to people.  You can visit the Maine Genealogical Societies website, Maine Roots, for more information.

Word for the day:  AHMENTAFEL - a German word for an ancestor chart, something you can make after a bit of research.

  

Digging for Your Roots - Geneaology 101

   Brian Bouchard of the Maine Genealogy Society will be our presenter on Saturday, July 26, 2014.  After a brief business meeting at 1:00 pm,  Brian will be doing a talk entitled:

Digging for Your Roots -

Genealogy 101

   Brian will be offering us ways to begin our research and how to use local resources in your quest to uncover your personal history.

   Old photographs are often a place we begin this journey and the link below will offer you some clues on dating the photographs you find through clothing and hair style, which is a gentle reminder, be sure you date and identify all your photographs for future generations!  Hope to see you at the History House on Saturday, July 26th for the presentation.

Dating Old Photographs

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Footnote:

Delaney playing 'dress up'

A corner of 'Grandma's Attic'

Our exhibit at the Ossipee Valley Fair this year, "Grandma's Attic" was awarded a Blue Ribbon as the first place display! Special thanks must go to Jan Iler, Merry Shea and Gary Lee for their hard work in the oppressive heat to set up the exhibit. The result was well worth it.

A reminder: we will be selling raffle tickets for the beautiful quilt at the meeting. It is an important fundraiser for the society and I hope you will support our efforts by purchasing a ticket, $1.00 each or 6 for $5.00.

A Visit to the Playhouse Theater...

   The new owner, or as he calls himself, steward, of the the old Playhouse Theater, Silas Hagerty, gave historical society members and local residents a very informative tour of the renovated theater on Saturday, June 28, 2014.

   Silas, along with countless friends who donated their time to the massive renovation project, has done a masterful job bringing the old theater back.  There are still seats to restore and install but you can see that it won't be too long before the smell of popcorn will again grace the lobby.

   Silas has promised to keep us appraised of the progress of the theater and we will post updates here on the blog as they become available.  We all wish Silas best of luck in his endeavor and thank him for saving this local landmark.

   On another note, our annual yard/bake sale was a huge success!  We were so lucky to have dodged Hurricane Arthur and the day went extremely well thanks to all the volunteers, including the Kezar Falls Boy Scouts, who helped us set up in record time.  Nothing like a little muscle to make things go quickly!

   A special thanks to all who donated things for us to sell.  The quality of the items was especially good this year which helped a lot.

This is also fair week in South Hiram and the historical society, along with Hiram and Cornish, will again be mounting an exhibit at the fair grounds in the Grange Building.

 This year, our theme is "Grandma's Attic".  We will have a special dress up corner for the kids and we will be selling raffle tickets for our lovely quilt.

  Do stop by and say "Hi!" and get your raffle tickets or a copy of the historical societies' histories of Parsonsfield and Porter.

   Our next meeting, on July 26, 2014 will feature Brian Bouchard from the Maine Genealogy Society.  His talk will be "Digging for your Roots: Genealogy 101".  There will be more information to follow but pencil this date in.  It should prove very interesting.